Friday, December 24, 2010

I haven't listened to any seasonal music until today. I always loved Christmas music, even when I was a kid and didn't celebrate the holiday. It's lovely, so warm and fun to have this music playing in the house. What better way to enjoy making the house beautiful for the family celebrations tonight? I have many of these in multiple versions, each with their own style.

Friday, December 3, 2010

I can't find a video of this one, sorry! Thanks to Suzanne for sending this to me. It's grown on me since you sent it. It's in my top ten list for singing now. And I'm going outside... to sing it.... now.

Tracy Grammer, "Phantom Doll"

raggedy ann came out to play
kittened a thin disguise against the day
painted a face across the mask
victim of the looking glass:
store windows are cruel
mannequin charms outshine her own
running away from her reflection home
hangin her head behind the door
sleepin on the kitchen floor

in glorious dreams
she walks outside her skin
her face so fine, her waist so thin
her voice like chimes and mandolins
beautiful phantom doll
saturday night on circus street
beating a long and ill-conceived retreat
carnival barkers bar her way
she never hears a word they say

in glorious dreams
she strolls, the boys beseech
the venus queen of venice beach
so near, so ever out of reach
beautiful phantom doll

midnight, the struggle is over
rise up, lily-white delicate shoulders
outside, the poets all know her
all of her children are waiting…

beggars and wrecks line junkyard lanes
tiffany slippers click-clack through the rain
rickety bones and sheer chiffon
dancin on the mayor’s lawn

in glorious dreams
they glide through gilded rooms
the drakes and gravely pale dragoons
the wasted daughters of the moon
beautiful phantom doll

raggedy andy wrote this song
scribbled it here where oceans meet the dawn
scuttled away on hansen claws
cinderella sailors draw

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Who's your Daddy
"Lies everywhere"
Said the Father to the son
You're peppermint breath
Gonna choke him to death
Daddy, watch your little black sheep run
He's got knives in his back
Everytime he opens up
You say "He gotta be strong if wou want to be a man"
Mr. I don't know how you can have
Sweet dreams
Sweet dreams

Land land of Liberty we're run
By a constipated man
When you live in the past
You refuse to see
When your daughter comes home nine months pregnant
With five billion points of light
Gonna shine them on the face of your friends
They've got the earth in a sling
The world on her knees
They've even got your zipper
Between their teeth
Sweet dreams
Sweet dreams
You say you have 'em
I say that you're a liar
Sweet dreams

Sweet dreams
Go on and dream
Your house is on fire

Well well summer wind
Been catching up with me
"Elephant mind missy you don't have
You're forgettin
To fly darlin' when you sleep"
I got hazy lazy susan
Takin turns all over my dreams
I got lizards and snakes
Runnin' through my body
Funny how they all have my face
Sweet dreams
You say you have 'em
I say that you're a liar
Sweet dreams
Sweet dreams
Go on and dream
Your house is on fire
Sweet dreams

"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" he said
"The one that makes me laugh" he said
And threw his arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it
And I promise you I promise that
I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you"

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed his face and I kissed his neck
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make him glow
"Why are you so far away?" he said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you"

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe his name
I opened up my eyes
I found myself alone alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only boy I ever loved
And drowned him deep inside of me

Somehow I missed this Michael Jackson song. The video is powerful. It's a song of grieving, but it highlights our deep need for reconnection to the beauty of our earth (and to one another) before we completely destroy everything that we have been given by the cosmos.

Earth Song - Michael Jackson

What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain...
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth its weeping shores?

Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh

What have we done to the world?
Look what we've done.
What about all the peace,
That you pledge your only son?
What about flowering fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the dreams,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice,
This crying Earth its weeping shores?

Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh
Aaaaaaaaah Oooooooooh

I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don't know where we are
Although I know we've drifted far

what about yesterday
(What about us)
What about the seas
(What about us)
The heavens are falling down
(What about us)
I can't even breathe
(What about us)
What about everything
(What about us)
I given you
(What about us)
What about nature's worth
(ooo, ooo)
It's our planet's womb
(What about us)
What about animals
(What about it)
We've turned kingdoms to dust
(What about us)
What about elephants
(What about us)
Have we lost their trust
(What about us)
What about crying whales
(What about us)
We're ravaging the seas
(What about us)
What about forest trails
(ooo, ooo)
Burnt despite our pleas
(What about us)
What about the holy land
(What about it)
Torn apart by creed
(What about us)
What about the common man
(What about us)
Can't we set him free
(What about us)
What about children dying
(What about us)
Can't you hear them cry
(What about us)
Where did we go wrong
(ooo, ooo)
Someone tell me why
(What about us)
What about baby boy
(What about it)
What about the days
(What about us)
What about all their joy
(What about us)
What about the man
(What about us)
What about the crying man
(What about us)
What about Abraham
(What was us)
What about death again
(ooo, ooo)
Do we give a damn

Monday, November 15, 2010

I love "Sister Moon" by Thomas Hellman, but I can't find the video or lyrics online. Check it out on iTunes.

Second-best is "Sister Moon" by Sting:

Sister moon will be my guide
In your blue blue shadows I would hide
All good people asleep tonight
I'm all by myself in your silver light
I would gaze at your face the whole night through
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

Lying in a mother's arms
The primal root of a woman's charms
I'm a stranger to the sun
My eyes are too weak
How cold is a heart
When it's warmth that he seeks?
You watch every night, you don't care what I do
I'd go out of my mind, but for you
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
My hunger for her explains everything I've done
To howl at the moon the whole night through
And they really don't care if I do
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

How do we love more than fear, hear more than speak, appreciate more than criticize, enjoy more than ache in longing?

These questions keep coming back around again.

Today, searching for more insights on this how-ness of transformation.

"Love always seeks for betterment, for ways of making life more workable, joyful, whole, and beautiful. Love examines every option available to bring about an improvement in life. This kind of discernment is an act of decency, not an act of judgment. Rigid philosophies of judgment will seek to establish structure as a substitute for decency, control as a substitute for trust, and the mind as a substitute for higher awareness.”
~ Glenda Green

"The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place."
~ Barbara Deangelis

"To change skins, evolve into new cycles, I feel one has to learn to discard. If one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one's mind and the psyche of yesterday. I throw away what has no dynamic, living use."
~ Anaïs Nin

I, (my ego & personality)
Do solemnly swear
to love, honor and obey my soul,
my path to realization and
relationship with a higher,
deeper creative power,
for better or worse,
for richer or poorer,
in sickness and in health,
from now and forever more.
~ Alex Grey

"Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!
~ Ram Dass

"Be grateful for whoever comes, because each guest has been sent as a guide from beyond."
~ Rumi

“Be aware of your inner voice and follow it, even though most of the time it will tell you the most uncomfortable path to choose.”
~ Glenn Close

“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organised or regulated. It isn't true that everybody should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.”
~ Ram Dass

“Not every one of our desires can be immediately gratified. We've got to learn to wait patiently for our dreams to come true, especially on the path we've chosen. But while we wait, we need to prepare symbolically a place for our hopes and dreams.”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

"To wait, to patiently sit in the dark without knowing what the outcome will be, to protect and respect that which has yet no clear form - all these are aspects of the womb."
~ Jalaja Bonheim

Called The Kiss, and created by Paul Cocksedge Studio, it's an interactive installation. Kiss is activated when two people hold the mistletoe under the tree and kiss. The electricity of their touch lights up 50,000 red and white LED lights.

It's all about the human touch and connection, if you want to get psychoanalytic about it. It's also about an environmental (and spectacular) way to make a show that isn't wasteful. The pixel sign marks up the number of kisses and raises money for The Prince's Trust charity at the same time.

And to your little boy and to your little girl,
And the one hand clapping:
Where on your palm is my little line,
When you're written in mine
As an old memory?
Ooh, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na

I put this moment..............................................here.
I put this moment.........................here.
I put this moment--
Over here!

Over here!

Can't you see where memories are kept bright?
Tripping on the water like a laughing girl.
Time in her eyes is spawning past life,
One with the ocean and the woman unfurled,
Holding all the love that waits for you here.

Catch us now for I am your future.
A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land.
Come over here to where When lingers,
Waiting in this empty world,
Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools.

For Now does ride in on the curl of the wave,
And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools.
We are of the going water and the gone.
We are of water in the holy land of water
And all that's to come runs in
With the thrust on the strand.

Well we are now five times of speed of sound...
Roger that Dan, I got a solid track and lock on back end delivery..
Tracking data, mass data and preplanned trajectory are all one on....(unintelligible)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." ~ James Earl Jones

"The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings." ~ The Buddha

"Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle." ~ Wislawa Szymborska

"Once you have loved, You will always love. For what's in your mind may escape, but what's in your heart will remain forever. There is no instinct like that of the heart." ~ Lord Byron.

"Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." ~ Charles Dickens

"In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all make me laugh." ~ W. H. Auden

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet." ~ Plato

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

"Behind all this, some great happiness is hiding." ~ Yehuda Amichai

"Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." ~ Rumi

"Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries." ~ Theodore Roethke

Thursday, September 9, 2010

A thousand years, a thousand more,
A thousand times a million doors to eternity
I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times
An endless turning stairway climbs
To a tower of souls
If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,
The towers rise to numberless floors in space
I could shed another million tears, a million breaths,
A million names but only one truth to face

A million roads, a million fears
A million suns, ten million years of uncertainty
I could speak a million lies, a million songs,
A million rights, a million wrongs in this balance of time
But if there was a single truth, a single light
A single thought, a singular touch of grace
Then following this single point, this single flame,
The single haunted memory of your face
I still love you
I still want you
A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves
Like galaxies in my head

I may be numberless, I may be innocent
I may know many things, I may be ignorant
Or I could ride with kings and conquer many lands
Or win this world at cards and let it slip my hands
I could be cannon food, destroyed a thousand times
Reborn as fortune's child to judge another's crimes
Or wear this pilgrim's cloak, or be a common thief
I've kept this single faith, I have but one belief
I still love you
I still want you
A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves
Like galaxies in my head
On and on the mysteries unwind themselves
Eternities still unsaid
'Til you love me

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

I have motor neurone disease (MND). I’m gradually losing the ability to walk, talk, eat and breathe. I won’t see my daughter go to primary school and she won’t remember me. I am dying – MND is killing me.

I’m determined to use what’s left of my life and my diminishing artistic skill to encourage others to do something optimistic every day. MND may be incurable but I am an incurable optimist. I know that through optimism we will find the cure to MND.

Optimism - even for just a few moments a day - can create a chain of small actions that really can change the world. It's all that ever really ever has.

I saw you ranting on TV today
I heard you tell me to reload
You got a lot of nerve to talk that way
Someone unplug the microphone

So tired of all the fighting
Cynicism and back-biting
Can't even hear myself think
You pour the Kool-Aid and then we drink

So much noise
So much chatter
Does the truth even matter?

Say, say what you want to
Even though you never mean it
Say, say what you want to
Ain't got time to be wasting time
Say, say what you want to

A better day
is always on its way
And love and compassion reign
If you really knew
What's in front of you
Would you hear the things you say?

We had a chance and now we're gonna blow it
Say, say what you want to
If this is America you'd never know it

Ignorance is patriotic
Reason is idiotic
Winds of change keep on blowin'
If this is America you'd never know it

So much noise
So much chatter
Does the truth even matter?

Say, say what you want to
Even though you never mean it
Say, say what you want to
Ain't got time to be wasting time
Say, say what you want to
We had a chance and now we're gonna blow it
Say, say what you want to
If this is America you'd never know it

All you little ones with open hearts
Don't let hatred tear your world apart
And if you wonder who is wrong or who is right
Better go ask God
"Shine some light!"

Earthquakes and Jihad Jane
Talking heads and hate campaigns
If aliens should land today
Who would be more afraid?
Us or them?

Say, say what you want to
You gotta say it, say it
Say, say what you want to
Whatever's on your mind
Say, say what you want to
Gimme a microphone, baby
Say, say what you want to
Oh-oh, oh-oh, out of the things I wanna say

(scat)
Are you lovers?
Are you haters?
We got something to say, yeah-yeah-yeah, ohh

Sunday, August 15, 2010

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

satisfy my soul, let the day begin
make the evening roll, let the big sky in
satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal

oh, this is what my heart needs to feel
oh, this is what my heart needs to feel

satisfy my soul, take away this pain
something has to end, to begin again
satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal

oh healing, every moment, every wish you have comes true
healing, every feeling, that is about to come to you
satisfy my soul, let the day begin
make the evening roll, let the big sky in
satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal

oh this is what my heart needs to feel
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( whoo, to feel)
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( need to feel baby)
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( ooh)

satisfy my soul, let the day begin
make the evening roll, let the big sky in
satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal

oh, this is what my heart needs to feel
oh, this is what my heart needs to feel

satisfy my soul, take away this pain
something has to end,to begin again

satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal
oh healing, every moment, every wish you have comes true
healing, every feeling, that is about to come to you

satisfy my soul, let the day begin
make the evening roll, let the big sky in
satisfy my heart, it's so good to feel
love is all around, and all the hurt will heal

oh this is what my heart needs to feel
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( whoo, to feel)
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( need to feel baby)
oh this is what my heart needs to feel
( ooh)

Try walking around with a child who's going, "Wow, wow! Look at that dirty dog! Look at that burned-down house! Look at that red sky!" And the child points and you look, and you see, and you start going, "Wow! Look at that huge crazy hedge! Look at that teeny little baby! Look at the scary dark cloud!" I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world--present and in awe." ~ Anne Lamott

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

“Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.”

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic."

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to
replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It
dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of
tarnishings."

"Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together."

The personal, if it is deep enough, becomes universal, mythical, symbolic.

I walk ahead of myself in perpetual expectancy of miracles.

“I have heard the beast pound
in the breath of a bird...
and felt in its feathers the fire.
I have hated with passion
the gathering herd
and the weight of its common desire.
Ah, but no rest for weary terrestrial wings
in beating oppressive air;
they long for the strength
of celestial things
like the essence of myrrh in her hair.”

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

When I run across items that affect my mind/spirit/heart in a positive way, I collect them. This blog is one such repository. Another place to store them is with tagged bookmarks: "emergency" or "planb" are the tags I use. These collections don't always help as much as I thought they might, but sometimes it makes a difference.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Do you
Hear me calling you
The voice of a mother, a father and a child
Would you recognize the truth
Do you feel a love that's falling from my eyes

Take just a minute
Come and rest you by my side
Let me tell you your own story
Let me walk you through your lives
Only a second
That's all it takes to realize
There's a hundred thousand angels
By your side

Do you
Hear me talk to you
I whisper through the doorways
And pathways of your mind
Clear like the morning dew
And fresh from my journey
Cross an ocean of blue

Take just a minute
Come and rest you by my side
Let me tell you your own story
Let me walk you through your lives
Only a second
That's all it takes to realize

There's a hundred thousand angels by your side
There's a hundred thousand angels by your side

You are resilient, hopeful, and inspiring. You have a lot of emotional, physical, and mental energy. You nurture and nourish yourself. You know that you need fulfillment and downtime if you want to be your best.

You stay present in every moment. You don't allow yourself to be distracted or flustered.

You appreciate the life you have been given. You embrace all that is beautiful in the world.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Take your mind back
I don't know when
Sometime when it always seemed to be just us and them
Girls that wore pink
And boys that wore blue
Boys that always grew up better men than me and you

What's a man now
What's a man mean
Is he rough or is he rugged
Cultural and clean

Now it's all changed
It's got to change more
We think it's getting better but nobody's really sure

And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
Mmmhmmmm -- MhmmMmmm
Mmmhmmmm -- MhmmMmmmM
Ahh-ahh-ahhhhh-ah

See the nice boys
Dancing in pairs
Golden earring golden tan, blow-wave in the hair

Sure they're all straight
Straight as a line
All the guys are macho, see their leather shine

You don't want to sound dumb
Don't want to offend
So don't call me a faggot, not unless you are a friend

Then if you're tall
Handsome and strong
You can wear the uniform, and I could play along

And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
Mmmhmmmm -- MhmmMmmm
Mmmhmmmm -- MhmmMmmmM
Ahh-ahh-ahhhhh-ah

Time to get scared
Time to change plan
Don't know how to treat a lady, don't know how to be a man

Time to admit
What you call defeat
Cause there's women running past you now, and you just drag your feet

Man makes a gun
Man goes to war
Man can kill, and man can drink, and man can take a whore

Kill all the blacks
Kill all the reds
If there's war between the sexes, then there'll be no people left

And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

Magnetic Fields - "100,000 Fireflies"

I have a mandolin
I play it all night long
It makes me want to kill myself
I also have a dobro
Made in some mountain range
Sounds like a mountain range in love
But when I turn up the tone
On my electric guitar
I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me
I went out to the forest and caught
A hundred thousand fireflies
As they ricochet round the room
They remind me of your starry eyes
Someone else's might not have made me so sad
But this is the worst night I ever had
'cause I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me
You won't be happy with me,
But give me one more chance
You won't be happy anyway
Why do we still live here
In this repulsive town?
All our friends are in New York
Why do we keep shrieking,
when we mean soft things?
We should be whispering all the time...

It seems impossible to fully articulate love - such a powerful catch-all phrase, isn't it? Every once in a while, I peruse the ever-growing collection of my favorite attempts. Here are the ones that beamed me on today:

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."~ Oscar Wilde

"But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."~ Vincent van Gogh

"Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love."~ Erich Fromm

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."~ Thomas Merton

"The most human thing we have to do in life is is to learn to speak our honest convictions and feelings and live with the consequences. This is the first requirment of love, and it makes us vulnerable to other people who may ridicule us. But our vulnerability is the only thing we can give to other people."~ Leo F. Buscaglia

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"Love is not love until love's vulnerable."~ Theodore Roethke

"We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love."~ Tom Robbins

"Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself."~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."~ C.S. Lewis

"You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."~ Jonathan Carroll

"Love is being stupid together."~ Paul Valery

"To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go."~ Mary Oliver

"Love is like seaweed; even if you have pushed it away, you will not prevent it from coming back."~ Nigerian Proverb

"Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."~ Kahlil Gibran

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving."~ Anatole France

"The first duty of love is to listen."~ Paul Tillich

"And besides, when you love somebody, you mustn't listen to what they say. They say things to hurt you because they're afraid of being hurt themselves. You must look at their eyes...and feel their hearts!"~ Tennessee Williams

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything."~ Katharine Hepburn

"Love sucks. Sometimes it feels good. Sometimes it's just another way to bleed."~ Laurell K Hamilton

"Love is a piano dropped from a fourth story window, and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time."~ Ani Difranco

"Love is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come."~ Matt Groening

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives."~ Bertrand Russell

"I hold it true, whatever befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Being purged a fire sparkling in lovers eyes, being vexed a sea nourished with lovers tears, What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall and a perserving sweet."~ William Shakespeare

"The one who loves you will make you weep."~ Argentine Proverb

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."~ Washington Irving

"Among men and women, those in love do not always announce themselves with declarations and vows. But they are the ones who weep when you're gone. Who miss you every single night, especially when the sky is so deep and beautiful, and the ground so very cold."~ Alice Hoffman

"I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all."~ Lord Byron

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."~ Victor Hugo

"It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations"~ Kahlil Gibran

"It is better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you are not."~ Andre Gide

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul."~ Saint Augustine

"Love is a better teacher than duty."~ Albert Einstein

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"This is the true measure of love: When we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us."~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. Praise God for those two insomnias! And the difference between them."~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"The only abnormality is the incapacity to love."~ Anais Nin

"This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."~ C.S. Lewis

Because even just a few years ago, such a comment would surely have hurted my feelin's.

But now? I just replied in the affirmative. Yup. Yeah. Of course!

I grew up thinking that no matter what I did I could never be good enough. I could never be perfect enough. I could never be smart enough. I could never be a boy! I could never be lovable. I could never be worthy of anything good - no matter how I tried, no matter what I did.

Now, with a boy of my own, I see. I was smart. I was pretty. I was talented. I was, in fact, very lovable. And I still am. More so now that I am freed of so many of those fears and insecurities.

And - I am *totally hot*!

What does that mean? I'm not an egoist or a narcissist. I know I don't have the looks or the charisma of a movie star or an incredible singer or actress. I don't have the hotness that seems to be valued via a pornesque lens in the common parlance.

But I'm hot to ME. I pay attention to the sensual pleasures of the moment. I appreciate all the various forms of beauty that surround me. I am grateful for my communion - in my own eclectic and sometimes overly-mystical way - with the cosmos. And because everything has its sensual and spiritual appeal, in one way or another, it rebounds back to me too.

And - at my age, finally - I feel a sparkle inside.

How can I explain it?

It's the love of complexity and life and reality as opposed to the paranoia and fear and projections. It's like the difference between Obama and Nixon.

When you've been on both sides, and have chosen, every moment is a kind of revelation. Fear really is the mind-killer.

Yes. I'm hot! And so are you.

Do you notice the little things that make each person unique? Is it possible to describe someone you care about without telling a story about them? Do you know - right now - that you'll always remember the people you care about in your life? Do you have that level of meta-dialogue with yourself?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

At some point, I become a participant of sorts (complete with dialogue) but there are times when a reverie develops into a narrative with its own texture and context and depth before any meta-process seems to kick into play.

How is it that these waking dreams occur? I can get far into one before it seems to require much from my conscious self at all.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

There's a place where fear won't find youWhere your secret dreams remind youThis is all you have to know andThis is all you have to go onEverything you have inside youEverything you need to guide youThis is all youhave to know andThis is all you have to go on

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Every culture around the world imagines Jesus as one of their own. I never for a minute thought that Jesus looked like a Bee Gee.

But - when I was a kid, I really did have a solid image for my thought-communions with Jesus.

Cat Stevens. Really. I was so disappointed when he became a fanatic.

But look here - a video of a live performance of "Tuesday's Dead" from the 1976 Earth Tour.

This suggests my internal image of Jesus more closely than anything else I can reference. Joyful, energetic, hopeful, deep, loving, beautiful. Who knows? He might have looked a bit like this.

Enjoy.

"Tuesday's Dead" - Cat Stevens

If I make a mark in time, I can't say the mark is mine.I'm only the underline of the word.Yes, I'm like him, just like you, I can't tell you what to do.Like everybody else I'm searching thru what I've heard.

Whoa, Where do you go? When you don't want no one to know?Who told tomorrow Tuesday's dead

Oh preacher won't you paint my dream, won't you show me where you've beenShow me what I haven't seen to ease my mind.Cause I will learn to understand, if I have a helping hand.I wouldn't make another demand all my life.

What's my sex, what's my name, all in all it's all the same.Everybody plays a different game, that is all.Now, man may live, man may die searching for the question why.But if he tries to rule the sky he must fall.

Now every second on the nose, the humdrum of the city grows.reaching out beyond the throes of our time.We must try to shake it down. Do our best to break the ground.Try to turn the world around one more time.Yeah, we must try to shake it down do our best to break the groundTry to turn the world around one more time